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Our virtual tribe

Citation for published version: MacDonald, R, Burke, R, De Nora, T, Sappho Donohue, M & Birrell, R 2021, 'Our virtual tribe: Sustaining and enhancing community via online music improvisation', Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 11, 623640. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.623640

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.623640

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Download date: 26. Sep. 2021 fpsyg-11-623640 February 18, 2021 Time: 19:46 # 1

ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 23 February 2021 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.623640

Our Virtual Tribe: Sustaining and Enhancing Community via Online Music Improvisation

Raymond MacDonald1*, Robert Burke2, Tia De Nora3,4, Maria Sappho Donohue5 and Ross Birrell6

1 School of Music, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2 Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 3 Department of Sociology, Philosophy, and Anthropology, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom, 4 Grieg Research School in Interdisciplinary Music Studies, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, 5 Interactive Research in Music as Sound, Centre for Research in New Music, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom, 6 The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, United Kingdom

This article documents experiences of Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra’s virtual, synchronous improvisation sessions during COVID-19 pandemic via interviews with 29 participants. Sessions included an international, gender balanced, and cross generational group of over 70 musicians all of whom were living under conditions of social distancing. All sessions were recorded using Zoom software. After 3 months of Edited by: twice weekly improvisation sessions, 29 interviews with participants were undertaken, Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann, Max Planck Institute for Empirical recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Key themes include how the sessions provided Aesthetics, Germany opportunities for artistic development, enhanced mood, reduced feelings of isolation, Reviewed by: and sustained and developed community. Particular attention is placed upon how Gareth Dylan Smith, improvisation as a universal, real time, social, and collaborative process facilitates Boston University, United States Dylan van der Schyff, interaction, allowing the technological affordances of software (latencies, sound quality, The University of Melbourne, Australia and gallery/speaker view) and hardware (laptop, tablet, instruments, microphones, *Correspondence: headphones, and objects in room) to become emergent properties of artistic Raymond MacDonald [email protected] collaborations. The extent to which this process affects new perceptual and conceptual breakthroughs for practitioners is discussed as is the crucial and innovative relationship Specialty section: between audio and visual elements. Analysis of edited films of the sessions highlight This article was submitted to Cultural Psychology, artistic and theoretical and conceptual issues discussed. Emphasis is given to how the a section of the journal domestic environment merges with technologies to create The Theatre of Home. Frontiers in Psychology Keywords: community, improvisation, virtual music, music therapy, wellbeing, music education, community Received: 30 October 2020 music Accepted: 28 December 2020 Published: 23 February 2021 Citation: INTRODUCTION MacDonald R, Burke R, De Nora T, Sappho Donohue M and This article is a multidisciplinary examination of how online synchronous improvisation can Birrell R (2021) Our Virtual Tribe: Sustaining and Enhancing Community have beneficial effects for participants. The authors have primary expertise in 4 related, but via Online Music Improvisation. distinct disciplines: Psychology, Music, Art and Sociology, and the resultant methods and analysis Front. Psychol. 11:623640. constitute a multidisciplinary dialogue between these different disciplines. The global (COVID- doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.623640 19) pandemic of 2020 necessitated various types of lockdown, social isolation, and physical

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distancing procedures to be put in place around the world. interaction and is fully accessible to anyone regardless of training One consequence of these measures was an immediate and or experience. While genre based improvisation (e.g., jazz, folk, drastic reduction in social interactions. There is already empirical and Carnatic) requires specific knowledge of conventions and evidence highlighting that the negative psychological effects of techniques, non-idiomatic improvisation, that is improvisation the measures implemented to mitigate against COVID-19 are that does not conform to any stylistic conventions or genre serious and related to social isolation [(Fancourt et al., 2020b; expectations, is fully accessible. MacDonald and Wilson(2020) Lob et al., 2020; Zacher and Rudolph, 2020; COVID Social provide a detailed account of techniques and further evidence to Study, 2020)1 and more recently the assembled literatures in support this assertion. COVID Minds, 2020]2. Therefore, the need for individuals to Improvisation can afford a multitude of interactive find ways to stay connected to family, friends, work colleagues possibilities (imitation, silent listening, and playful explorations, and wider communities has become and, at time of writing, etc.). This is particularly important since the emphasis is on remains paramount. process and exploration rather than product. These features mean Amongst the many strategies reported to help communities that improvisation also makes unique demands on cognition stay connected, music was utilized as a particularly potent form of (multimodal real time decision making). Improvisation also communal activity. There were many reports in the international enables the non-verbal articulation of thoughts and feelings that media of music being used. These included local communities may otherwise be difficult to develop. chanting a song of support in Wuhan, Italians singing from their Improvisation is also a defining feature of music therapy balconies in Sicily and all over Italy3 and a DJ playing dance since it can facilitate a clinical relationship between therapist music for the local community from his balcony in Glasgow, and client (Wigram, 2004; Foubert, 2020; Foubert et al., 2020). Scotland4. In the United Kingdom one particularly evocative and Moreover, it offers a way of being or dwelling together when popular example of this use of music was the formation of a other communication modalities fail and one that overlaps virtual choir where over 15,000 people were able to come to in ecologically valid ways with what people do (or did) in sing together as part of a project hosted by The BBC5. These their daily lives (Ansdell, 2014). Within a therapy context, vivid and anecdotal examples of music providing social support improvisation can have benefits for specific groups, including are supported by published research this a considerable and aiding rehabilitation after neurological damage, enhancing growing body of evidence highlighting how music can enhance communication skills for young people with autistic spectrum health and wellbeing in both clinical and non-clinical contexts disorders, and reducing stress and anxiety. A number of benefits (MacDonald et al., 2012). have been reported for specific populations as a result of The crucial point for this current project is that, given these improvisation and MacDonald and Wilson(2014) provide a fundamental features, engagement with music has the potential review of published evidence. to provide considerable emotional support and a means for Particular features of improvisation that may facilitate these connecting with friends and colleagues during turbulent times developments include engaging both conscious and unconscious (MacDonald, 2021a). This is a focus of the current article. perceptual processes and facilitating the exploration of difficult Another important point is that musicians are significantly or repressed emotions and memories. Improvisation can be affected socially and economically by the pandemic, with emotionally engaging and help distract from recurrent negative their livelihoods under threat in addition to the effects of thoughts (MacDonald and Wilson, 2014). Improvisation may physical distancing measures. Given this context the present also make particular demands on attentional and perceptual study investigates this “double burden” of psychological and processes while engaging participants in a uniquely social and economic vulnerability. creative process (MacDonald and Wilson, 2020). Importantly, While music of all kinds has demonstrated links to wellbeing, although improvisation is a fundamental aspect of music it may be that special claims can be made for improvisation, therapy practice, its basic processes remain similar outwith outlined below (MacDonald and Wilson, 2020). Viewed not clinical contexts. It may therefore offer health benefits to only as a defining feature of jazz music, improvisation is now those engaging in improvisation activities outside of explicitly studied in universities and conservatoires around the world as a healthcare situations. Furthermore, improvisation is also a fully post idiomatic form of musical communication (Johnson, 1995; accessible form of musical engagement that is not limited by Dibley and Gayo, 2018; Onsman and Burke, 2019). Improvisation pre-existing canonical notions of mastery and instrumental as an accessible, social, creative, and non-verbal process, distinct technique (MacDonald, 2021b). This is apparent in the breadth from other areas of musical activity provides an excellent context of documented improvisational approaches (Cornelius Cardew, for health and wellbeing applications. As a real time spontaneous 1974; Oliveros, 2005; Stevens et al., 2007; Ninh, 2010; Morris, form of collaborative creativity it is open to the moment and thus 2012, 2017). This is further substantiated in the general oral pliable, malleable, and agile. Improvisation facilitates creative tradition of the field – for example influential improvising singer Maggie Nicols’ often spoken phrase “creativity is a birthright,” is 1 COVID Social Study: https://www.covidsocialstudy.org/results a perspective echoed by many players in the field while also being 2 COVID Minds: https://www.covidminds.org/longitudinal-studies a core value to GIO as well6. 3https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/solidarity-balcony-singing- spreads-across-italy-during-lockdown While there is no agreed definition of improvisation, for 4https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/scots-dj-george-bowie- the purposes of this article improvisation is constructed as pledges-21723745 5https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-52860785 6https://www.glasgowimprovisersorchestra.com/giofest/programme/

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a social and collaborative non-idiomatic form of creativity ways that lead to an enhanced and broadened concept of what that focuses on spontaneous, real-time interactions. In other music is and can become. words, a unique form of universally accessible, socially mediated, and collaborative creativity (MacDonald and Wilson, 2020). Of particular importance here is that these features allow many MATERIALS AND METHODS of the challenges of online music-making to be incorporated into ongoing musical interactions. For example, latency is often This project focuses on the work of The Glasgow Improvisers quoted as a considerable barrier to online music-making. Latency Orchestra (GIO) a large improvisation ensemble with a flexible occurs due to the time taken for events to travel via the internet membership or approximately 25 individuals. GIO includes from one location to another. Much has been written about how musicians from a diverse background with its members (current synchronous musical interactions are influenced by latency issues and past) having also performed with groups such as The Scottish and there is considerable debate regarding how best to overcome National Jazz Orchestra, The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the challenge of performing music online “in time” (everyone Franz Ferdinand, and numerous critically acclaimed folk and synchronized to the same pulse) (Smith et al., 2020). However, an experimental groups. The group also collaborates with dancers, improvised approach to music-making allows latency to become artists, filmmakers, and writers. Since its inception in 2002 GIO an emergent feature of improvisational interactions. In summary, has enjoyed a high profile in the international experimental music the real time process focused aspects of improvisation, combining scene and have collaborated with some of the world leading its accessibly, social and collaborative features, make it an ideal musicians in this area, including (George Lewis, Maggie Nicols, process to utilize during online music making. Within this online Evan Parker, and Joëlle Léandre). It has also been the subject of environment the unpredictable nature of technology (hardware high profile critical attention (“One of the best large improvising and software) necessitates the need to be dynamically responding ensembles in the world.” BBC Jazz on 3. “The Premier league to moment to moment changes and surprises. of the European improvisation scene.” Sudeutsche Zeitung7). An important feature of the many examples of music The group has released 11 CDs and numerous works have been performances that appeared on the internet during the COVID composed for it and/or commissioned. epidemic tended to focus on pre-composed music. However, As a means of staying connected during lockdown measures playing together in real-time is particularly difficult given the GIO began online improvisation sessions. Musicians from current technology available includes delays in processing and other parts of the world also experiencing similar “lockdowns” transmission, termed latency and defined above. To compensate were also invited to the zoom sessions. This international for the “latency problem,” musicians very often have to record dimension is particularly important since it utilizes one of individually and separately with the whole piece being later the unique affordances of online music making using Zoom; reassembled in the editing stage. While this production process namely it transcends geography. In these sessions all participants can create an illusion of musicians playing together in real-time, around the world were in the same creative space with the it is achieved only by isolating musicians acoustically – in other same remit to create music together. Sessions lasted 2 hours words, they cannot actually be together and co-produce real- and were facilitated and recorded using Zoom software. time sound. By contrast, the use of improvisation may offer Participation grew to include over 70 cross-generational strategies for overcoming latency issues and thus facilitate real- musicians from around the world which had an emphasis time interactions between musicians. on gender balance of approximately the same number of Considered within a “music, health and wellbeing” female identifying and male participants and inclusive of perspective it seems paradoxical that online music making, gender non-conforming contributors. All participants were which has potential to offer comfort and connection, has experiencing some form of government instructed lockdown been probematized because of the predominant (and under- as a result of Covid-19 pandemic. The principal musical examined) preoccupation with presenting pre-recorded process at the sessions was improvisation which was used “finished” products. This “problem” can be redressed if we as a means to facilitate the large ensemble improvisations. reconsider the “performance” vs. “exploration” perspectives. Following the sessions, a sample of 29 individuals who had In the performance perspective, the material features participated in the sessions were interviewed in connection of Zoom are dismissed or viewed as in need of being with their experiences. Ethical approval was obtained from the disciplined/minimized/eradicated/effaced. In the latter, a Edinburgh University ethics committee and all participants focus on the material ingredients of Zoom in terms of what completed a consent form and took part in semi-structured they afford for “becoming” and as those affordances are tapped interviews. All interviews were recorded on Zoom and and embraced in ways that lead to an emergent “Zoomesphere” fully transcribed. (defined below). This online music making – specifically The types of musical activities included in the session music making using Zoom in combination with the act of were wide ranging and there was an explicit acceptance that improvisation – can then be seen simultaneously as a new and all musical gestures were welcomed. Conventional playing, important context for health related musiking. It is a place and e.g., improvisations based on pentatonic scales, could easily space for new understandings in social and identity work, and appear alongside the use of household objects used for for new ideas and new approaches to collaborative creativity. It also contributes new aesthetic discoveries and developments in 7https://www.glasgowimprovisersorchestra.com/press/

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percussive and/or conceptual reasons (e.g., marigold gloves). Supplementary Videos 1–3. These films were analyzed with the Often musical gestures merged with other modalities and the TIAALS, software developed as part of the Interactive Research dynamic use of virtual backgrounds became an important in Music as Sound (IRiMaS) project8. Particular moments are feature of the emerging creative dialogue (see Supplementary highlighted below as being good exemplars of the conceptual Videos 1–3 for detailed examples of the types of improvisation issues discussed. involved and also see below for further detail regarding the improvisation sessions. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using a thematic RESULTS analysis framework in accordance with criteria outlined by Terry et al.(2017). This approach included the following The first stage of analysis produced over 80 emergent themes and stages: Familiarization (transcription and repeated reading), these are outlined in Figure 1. Coding (initial labeling and description of topics); Generating These themes were refined and further analyzed to produce themes (identify patterns and salience in codes); Reviewing three main thematic headings: Music, Social, and Technical. themes (refining themes, ensuring accuracy, and checking Statements referring to the musical aspects were placed within with data); Defining and naming themes (developing clear the Music category while comments regarding the wider succinct titles and definitions with appropriate exemplars drawn psychological and social contexts of the sessions were categorized from data). In addition, verbatim quotes were identified and under Social. There was significant discussion around the collated as qualitative evidence (Corden and Sainsbury, 2006). technological features of the sessions, and these were resultantly The analysis sought to recognize the inescapably “messy” coded within the technical category. Importantly, the analysis features of coding and classification (Law, 2004) – in many revealed considerable overlap between each of these broad cases codes overlapped and ran into each other as will be definitions and the subheadings highlight how the musical, social, discussed below. Each member of the research team listened and technological aspects of the experience are inextricably and/or read each interview at least four times (in some cases linked. These, largely self-explanatory, categories helped provide many more times). In line with guidelines above, coding was a framework for four further broad themes: Identity, Health, an iterative, emergent process, where authors endeavored to Zoomesphere, and Environment as seen in Figure 2. allow participants’ views and experiences to guide the coding. Similarly, and in keeping with the ethos of GIO, the team Health has taken a deliberate decision to include as many quotes Physical and mental health issues were frequently raised by the from participants as possible in an academic format so as to participants. These observations referenced the negative effects let the voices of participants be heard in their own words of the pandemic along with the positiveness and elevation of the and to get broader detailed quotes in support of emergent experiences of improvising in the regular GIO sessions. This was themes. In this respect the coding also utilized a grounded evidenced in the participant’s discussion around health issues in theory perspective. No coding software was used as it was which they made frequent reference to the negative effects of not deemed necessary (indeed manual management of coding the pandemic upon mental and physical health. One of these was viewed by the team as a means of becoming intimately centered on grief, pain and distress: familiar with the content of each interview). There were over 6 rounds of coding. It was a bit like, fuck. It’s like, we can’t play ... we can’t be In addition the authors participated in the music sessions musicians. How do we like function in this life? (Participant 1). and during the writing of this article they reflected on their I’d had this period of grief, which was kind of really unusual for me experiences in the sessions and their own wellbeing in relation (Participant 2). to GIO. Between them they represented divergent levels of experience and skill within the world of improvised music I thought it was too painful to imagine that I might not, you know, and this divergence afforded a “dual handed” ethnographic like that kind of huge orchestral sound, I might not get to do that focus on sessions. On the one hand, MacDonald, Burke, and again. So, I kind of shut down a bit. I didn’t like it... playing would Donohue were all seasoned improvisers who enjoy international remind me of all the things I couldn’t do, until I started doing the reputations as musicians. On the other hand, DeNora, entered GIO thing (Participant 3). the group as a researcher/participant and a beginner to the field (relearning an instrument after 40 years) which allowed W to I was overwhelmed by grief. I was having a lot of sleepless nights. reflect in particular on the ways in which the group culture I think you guys have probably had the same but just really weird dreams. Difficult things, right? (Participant 4). fostered inclusion, regardless of level of expertise. Birrell, an established artist and film-maker, oversaw the recording and All the quotes above highlight the explicitly negative effects subsequent editing of the sessions. of lockdown social distancing on health. However, there was an A key aspect of this study is the utilization of the visual overarching sense that involvement with GIO helped address aspects of the sessions for analysis. All sessions were recorded these psychological issues: for both sound and visual elements. Three extracts representing a dynamic range of the musical, social, and psychological aspects 8https://research.hud.ac.uk/institutes-centres/irimas/, ERC grant agreement no. of the interactions were selected and edited and are available here: 741904

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FIGURE 1 | Emergent themes.

And so yeah, psychologically, it was. It was a benefit, I would say So. Yeah. So Zoom session is very... I can overcome this feeling from it was beneficial to my mental health during the look down, for the Zoom session...[I] got a sense of security. Thanks to the regular sure (Participant 5). weekly sessions, I realized once again, how important music is to me (Participant 7). GIO has been a very important part of nourishing me in a way that is, you know, lifting my spirits enough that I don’t default to Helped me to kind of kind of build on the core again addiction (Participant 6). and just and it’s a little bit like hibernating, I think, you know, you kind of like eat enough of that and you I had a lot of time to practice, but, so, I enjoyed the practising, but I can sort of last a little bit longer by yourself for a while felt alone. So I feel isolated. So, I need to, play, with, other musicians. (Participant 21).

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FIGURE 2 | Thematic categories.

This is a very good method for me to not only mend my loneliness wellbeing (Participant 9). (Participant 23). Yes, I feel a bit terrible these days ... It feels like I’m connected They give me something to do. And they give me something to look to something that I belong to someone/thing ... so having a forward to. And they give me goals (Participant 24). group that I can feel that I belong to, and especially during this lockdown is just like, – like a miracle really. And I can sense that people are also on the same level or on the There were also many comments relating to how participation same path in a way. So it’s definitely like super important in the sessions resulted in beneficial effects. The first of these (Participant 11). was connection: I don’t think I would have survived pandemic without this group. I was seeing through lock down that feeling of being disconnected. Without Raymond and GIO. I don’t think I would be feeling this Usually, my friendship circle or my social circle were all connected good (Participant 4). to the music scene. And so being able to engage with people in that way and still make music and connect with them, and just talk ...They’ve managed to create a space of connection. And connection about how we’re all doing in the sessions and interact and having a is something that every person needs (Participant 8). laugh. All that was incredibly beneficial. And I noticed that it was something that I had, I noticed that other people maybe didn’t have So yeah. Benefits are, yeah, intense emotion induction during (Participant 5). a time that a lot of our emotional baseline is just anxiety and uncertainty. Just maintaining connection, human connection, and I think that probably one of the things I was most scared of when friendships (Participant 9). the lockdown happened was that, obviously, with moving out of the city, moving to a different city, but knowing even if I went back ...The main thing for me was just connecting to the community, to the city, I couldn’t just call up friends and meet with them, or again, like and just having that sort of borders dissolve I couldn’t see you all once a month. I just had a big fear of losing straightaway in seeing people from, you know from the year these connections. Even if, you know, we were allowed back in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, and just being Centre of Contemporary Arts within a matter of months, I know able to say hi, and then hear them hear them play again that this kind of connection and network is really essential to my (Participant 21).

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I live in isolation with my MS (Multiple Sclerosis) which I have had But yeah, actually having these, these sessions to regularly and for 20 years and so this gives me connection (Participant 22). immediately make music, but also be an agent in the, the sort of stimuli for that music, you know, maybe more of an agent in These thematic strands reveal important aspects of the the compositional process. Has made me feel really empowered sessions linking musical engagement with psychological (Participant 9). wellbeing. While each quote conveys subtly different meanings, they all emphasize that the online sessions helped participants Additional health benefits seemed to stem from a strong sense feel connected to a wider community of supportive colleagues of feeling accepted by the group which participants reported and friends. There is evidence that this type of psychological producing a sense of belonging during extreme times of isolation. support is important. For example, high levels of social support I think it gave me what is it this sense of belonging (Participant 11). and reducing stress are linked to more effective coping strategies (Curtis et al., 2004). While peer group social support and So, being invited to the GIO sessions, you know, it has felt like a feelings of freedom through creative expression have been validation of me Whatever it is, socially or musically. And so, I linked to increased hedonic tone and reduction in anxiety have felt that I felt a sense of belonging (Participant 12). (O’Callaghan, 2001). Additionally, social support, feelings of connectivity, positive psychosocial moments and opportunities Just to remind you that you’re not alone, you know, that you that for creative engagement, play an important role in quality there are people out there that want to relate to you and your part of a community. You know, we’re an extended family really of life for clients in improvisational based music therapy (Participant 6). (Aldridge, 1991). The key points here are that lockdown had a detrimental effect on participants’ health and that the online Significantly, many observed that the space minimized sessions helped ameliorate these negative effects by providing judgments from others of their playing as well as how they social support through feelings of being connected within a judged themselves compared to previous in-person experiences. supportive community. Australian improviser Participant 13 talked about the online creative space where a freedom from previous conventional Mood improvisational spaces allowed unexplored interdisciplinary Another consistent theme reported was the beneficial effect of a expressions and experimental choices to be made: positive mood change. Many of the participants reported that the I found it all very liberating, you know, in the fact you’d have your GIO experience resulted in a feeling of being simply elevated and own space, and it’s totally non-judgmental,... no judgment, no “in a good mood” after the sessions. expectation, no sort of pressure that you could do anything wrong (Participant 13). Even if I wasn’t sure if I was in the mood for it, I always kind of came away with a really positive energy from it as well. Well, I So there isn’t the sense of I’ve come to a place – What do people think think a lot of people felt that. And so yeah, that that was the main, of me? I feel safe with GIO anyway but there was that sense of even the main thing was just that feeling of being connected to other another layer of “ach” I’m at home I can put my feet up. I can just people when we were so disconnected (Participant 5). flash something on the screen, I can bring a teddy bear, or...I can play with colors. There isn’t a sense of it has to have meaning! It has It’s just been really nice to see, you know, yeah, I’ve always been in a to be important! I think taking that pressure off, it creates something good mood afterward. It has always lifted my mood..... It has helped. quite magical (Participant 6). It helped my mood, I guess I think, not that I was in a particularly bad mood when I started, but it was something that I could look This non-judgmental culture further enhanced participants’ forward to. And then when I did it, I felt, you know, much better willingness to take risks within the space, to offer things to the than that. So, so yeah, I would say that it’s helped in that sense group that might otherwise have seemed outside the frame of (Participant 10). what could count as appropriate. For example:

While others spoke about the experience as cathartic I think like it was certainly delicate and sensitive. Um, but I think and empowering: explicitly recognizing the link between there was a huge amount of trust there and huge amount of kind of improvisational activities and health. warm support I mean, I personally found it very emotional really too, you know, when you some you got, I mean, some of the people I’ve looked forward to it, you know, I feel like it’s like a kind of an there I know nothing about – (Participant 13). internal massage for your brain almost, and being able to get to that focus state, that state of flow is the same. Really cool, because it’s, you In summary, these extracts all highlight the positive effects know, you can’t call it that you’re talking about sleep, like I think of the session on mood and in particular show participants people’s sleep has suffered. I think concentration has suffered. It’s awareness of their own mood management strategies. The notion hard to focus. I mean, or it has been harder to focus, but I think that of “social prescribing,” or referral of a patient, usually by a finding the focus through music, and then you realize an hour’s gone by, and then you’re like, wow, you know, so even that, having to do link worker, to a community asset or activity such as a sports that, and it’s been really, really is beneficial for me (Participant 1). club or choir, is currently generating growing interest (Fancourt and Finn, 2020; Mahase, 2020). While the effect of the GIO These feelings of empowerment and positive moods also sessions in terms of mood shift can be understood through the affected an enhanced sense of creativity: social prescription lens, what happened here was also different.

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Members were engaged in “self-prescribing” and participation in Finding my GIO tribe has been amazing. But that’s not always you the sessions can be understood as part of their lay-activity of self- know, that was okay for me living because I moved to Glasgow, care, and in ways that resulted in improved mental health and which is one of the most amazing creative and kind of permissive in wellbeing, a finding that underlines the importance of processes a creative way. Cities you could live in. You know, it’s like, I always and modes of engagement in the arts/mental health equation think it’s like, nobody You can do whatever you like in Glasgow and (Fancourt et al., 2020a), in this case the role of member-expertise the kind of the combination of nobody really cares. And also, but they’re willing to let you have a go, some kind of combination of that and co-creation of the cultural practices at stake. is just I think it’s why there’s so much, you know, art and music and In relation to these modes and processes within GIO, it is just, it’s respected, but also know, nobody’s going to really ask me if worth reflecting on why it was that the tenor of participants’ I didn’t get all the things. So if I put if I hadn’t moved to Glasgow, responses was so overwhelmingly positive about the GIO sessions there’s no way I would have found that tribe. I don’t think in Cork I in relation to mental health. We believe this was an effect of although maybe there are people here now, but I’m not sure I’ve ever (a) self-selection (all members chose to join the sessions), (b) come across them. So that is that that’s where the virtual tribes are familiarity with the people and the practices and all being in the going to are going to really come in for people who aren’t as lucky same boat in terms of learning the techniques of zoom sessions as I am to live in Glasgow. And to be able to sit in a room with and zoom’s constraints/affordances (including the opportunity people like Raymond, you know, that’s where, and you’re going to to engage creatively with zoom so as to work, as improvisers, have people and Raymond as good example, who are going to be the ones to reach out to make and networks across the world that then with those constraints/affordances, (c) the pre-existing culture you know, the little kind of local communities and we’ll be joined up within GIO of hospitality which was strongly linked to the by people like Raymond and yourself and you know, Who do and core ethos of mutual support, and (d) the alternative – if GIO get to spread the word around to this? And I, I just think that yeah, sessions were abandoned or if overt-conflict were to ensure there it’s just that finding your tribe thing, it’s the same I feel the exact would be a return to social isolation. In short, GIO’s pre-existing same way about the, the Chamber Orchestra I play with like, it was, culture afforded social support and the Covid-19 restrictions it’s just like, in you making music with your friends or your more, intensified the need members felt for a form of group support and or people that you feel are accepting of you. So you’re more relaxed, companionship, musically configured. It is worth adding here you can do more (Participant 15). that the weekly sessions, attended by all five authors, confirm As posed by Maffesoli(1996); Hetherington(1998), and unambiguously the convivial and “upbeat” quality of the sessions Bennett(1999), the idea of the tribe captures the temporal to which the interviews refer. and spatial fluidity of belonging and attachment in modern times because it abstracts identity from its traditional locations Identity (gender, class, region, occupation, education, culture, and sub- Closely related to health were issues of identity which appeared culture). By contrast, identities emerge as individuals move to grow from the connection and continual contact with a between site-specific cultural scenes associated with persona, digital online community. Identity has become one of the most practices, and stances and the basis of social order within these discussed and problematized topics within contemporary society spaces is empathic, based upon ambience, emotion and aesthetic (MacDonald et al., 2017). Social changes taking place during practice (Maffesoli, 1996). At the same time, the tribal impulse the pandemic bring resultant implications for identity processes, is underpinned by, as Hetherington(1998) suggests, the strong and vice versa (Jetten et al., 2020) and this was clearly evident desire to belong, understood as a response to increasing social in the interviews. At times these developments were related to and cultural disruption and fragmentation: individuals’ sense of their own situations evolving, whilst the identity changes clearly related to the emergent group process Oh, you have to find your tribe, it really resonated with me because in GIO sessions. For a number of participants their practice that’s what being a musician is (Participant 3). changed over the course of the sessions with discussion of creative That whole thing of bringing everybody together creative people evolutions. These developments consequently lead to changed together, to, you know, to improvise and to feel like they belong. We notions of professional identity (Isenberg-Grzeda, 1988). know Yeah, like minded you know (Participant 16). ...We are developing a new way of being creative as we’re doing it I think of GIO in my head, I just think of it as this amazingly (Participant 1). warm family...very powerful thing. Powerful thing. Good juju (Participant 10). It’s really redefined my identity again, it is a reflection to what’s going on now and during this time if I cannot perform onstage, so The impulse to belong to a tribe is in other words a survival what. I’m supposed to stop working? Stop singing? Stop doing this strategy and a part of what might be seen as a tacit salutogenic stop doing that? No! So I need to redefine what is art for me, what is what kind of interaction, what kind of way I want to reach to this practice. This is because the tribe can offer an affective haven or world (Participant 14). place/space of and for expression, comfort, pleasure, recreation, and play. As such the tribe is also is a site of mutual performance For some people, the urge to be creative and to be part of a (Bennett, 1999). As we can see in the quote from Participant community is possibly more fundamental than the urge to be an 15, the tribe can be understood as a “community of feeling” instrumentalist. Some comments expressed a basic human need (Hetherington, 1998) or “a certain ambience” (Maffesoli, 1996, to be creative (Burnard, 2012). p. 98) involving sensibility (Onsman and Burke, 2019), aesthetic

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orientation and affinity with like-minded others. In this sense, ideas, emotions) – a place and environment in which creative tribal belonging is a source of sustenance, wellbeing, and identity activity can be performed”. A common thread highlighted in validation. It is a space for health promotion. Of interest then the interviews was the notion of the musicians being part of a is what the space of Zoom affords in terms of wellbeing in these virtual creative space. This virtual creative space (Zoomesphere) turbulent, COVID times and how that space can be appropriated included the physical room where the musicians performed (a and rendered into a kind of “home from home” (‘moved into’) room in their home), the computer screen and the Zoom software so as to preserve connection when the traditional physical where each musician had their own box: their space amongst the spaces for tribal congregation are prohibited or, as with Covid- larger ensemble space of stacked spaces on the screen. Within the 19, temporarily out of bounds. Identity-transformation in and structure of stacked boxes on the screen, each music improviser through music was a crucial feature of this “moving in,” and was afforded agency to create and experiment both visually in particular for this international group where it served as a and with sound. Within this stacked structure, each box can communal language and promoted inclusion. simultaneously be perceived as an “individual stage” and as one part of a wider stage or scene. Through the shared space and from Because we really should have our language to communicate...[music] is actually much easier for me, talking within the individual boxes (and thus the overall Zoomesphere) English is much harder. The music, our language, we can they can be seen to be involved in a constant and co-creative discuss/talk. I mean, exchange the feeling, so somehow doesn’t configuring, negotiating, and reconfiguring of the Zoomesphere. matter where you are. In United Kingdom, in Japan, in Europe In this sense, the GIO improvisatory Zoomesphere can be seen or in America. Everybody. Most of us had to stay [in] our place. as an exemplary case of democratic co-creation and important in Not go out. And we didn’t know what’s going on. And you know, the observed wellbeing effects. facing...COVID. So it’s like sharing feelings and making music. I think even just doing that, just two of those things. Makes us all feel, I really loved the way GIO was set up. I love the egalitarian I mean, very happy (Participant 17). structure. And the fact that they interrogate that structure in a The focus on the creation of tribal connections through very rigorous way. And they were able to translate that into the the medium of an online platform, moreover, highlights an Zoom format. That was really interesting. I thought artistically (Participant 8). important theme of this article: the interpenetration of the “actual” and the “virtual’. That theme in turn illuminates the particular qualities of the Zoomespheric, virtual space for GIO The visual democracy and flattened space that Zoom affords, members. Cultural geographers have considered how, in Shields’ draws to the fore the visual features of what transpires during words, “the virtual is real without being actual and ideal without a session which accords each participant equal space. The being abstract” (Shields, 1999, p. 3). In other words, identities are individual/social affordance of the boxes within the box let always hybrid; they emerge in relation to materials and practices individuals have “equal space” (visually speaking) for furnishing and in ways that shuttle back and forth between, and mutually what happens in the “bigger box” (the total of the individual constitute image, dream, virtual, material, possible, and actual boxes) and that this “affordance,” combined with the audio- (DeNora, 2014). In the case of GIO online, the specific features constraints (can’t hear all at once, latency) drew the visual and affordances of the Zoomesphere, understood as a space, were features of improvisation to the fore in a new way. While much as participants described; critical for the creation of new modes has been written regarding how recent advances in community and practices of belonging and experiencing identity – personal music and music education have fostered more egalitarian and and social. Furthermore, they emerged out of what, initially, were democratic types of musical engagement, the type of democracy perceived as constraints posed by the Zoom software and in ways we refer here is specifically concerned with the technological that expressly link that technology, and its affordances, to the affordances of working within the Zoom context. All participants previously discussed themes of identity, mood and health. occupy equal space on the screen and this situation is quite different from in-person music making where hierarchies are Zoomesphere/Environment/ Space often explicitly conveyed in how a group is spatially organized on While there is specific networked music production software stage. For example conductor, lead singer, and soloist etc., at the (Jacktrip9, JamKazam10), it is of note that all GIO meetings opted front and drummer, percussionist backing singers at the front. for a visual conferencing platform over the musical platforms. The theme of reimagining is significant here, as it draws into Zoom was chosen specifically for its inclusivity (easy to access, no relief an important feature of our understanding of space as technical knowledge needed). As adaptations to the Zoomesphere mental space (Fauconnier, 1994). Fauconnier proposed the term proliferated this new space became, as we call it, “moved into’. “mental spaces” by which he meant cognitive structures relating A space is itself a hybrid of material, conceptual, imagined and to non-reality through individual conceptualizations and ideas practical. It is, as Wierzbicki and Nakamori(2005). have said, and their properties. The notion of mental spaces is intrinsic to an “a place and space in which knowledge is shared, created and understanding of what a virtual space is through the GIO online used, including physical space (offices, buildings), virtual space improvisational experience. Many of the interviews support the (computer network services), and mental space (experiences, argument that the virtual space took on an expanded meaning to include Fauconnier’s term mental space; a bricolage of the 9https://www.jacktrip.org/ physical space, affordances, and mental space that make up the 10https://www.jamkazam.com/ online improvisational creative space: the Zoomesphere.

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There’s something very intimate about the fact that we are using It was helpful to my mental health... there was no stress our devices. We are using our phones. We are using our laptops: (Participant 3). it’s something that is ours. So we have a kind of attachment to it to this, it’s an object, but it’s our object. So we are objectivizing the Once I settled into it, I found it all very liberating, you know, in the object itself. And we are seeing through our lens, something that is fact you’d have your own space, and it’s totally non-judgmental. I outside. So it’s like there’s something very rationalism like kind of think that was another really important factor (Participant 13). approach of, you know, not even Cartesian approach but you know, just kind of an idea of the consciousness, like we are here and we I don’t think I [would have] survived pandemic without this group. are actually observing ourselves all the time. Because ourselves are Without Raymond and GIO. I don’t think I would be feeling this always in the screen somehow. So while I have this phone and I’m good (Participant 4). going to an installation, that is using augmented reality, and it’s my phone, I know how to control it. I am the one who leads it. I I was always constantly mentally, emotionally physically, and just am in charge. I’m god. I’m going to say it like that in a way. So doing everything I could to make sure I could be there at the next while I’m taking this camera and opening it, first of all, it’s very, session and just listen and feel it and then respond and then create very intimate, because I’m using my phone. And then I’m starting something new (Participant 4). to scroll it into the room and finding all kinds of clues inside of it. So I am creating my narrative. I’m creating my art form; I’m creating But, as the last comment from Participant 4 illustrates, the what’s happening. And it wasn’t before. And I also think that it’s also Zoomesphere offered something more substantial than mere happening on Zoom (Participant 14). retreat as the format of online collaborative improvisation also afforded the development of new creative, and social, practices. Here, Participant 14 alludes to how entering into the It was, in other words, a space that could be “furnished” Zoomesphere is entering into an “immersive space,” one that with new affordances and resources for wellbeing (DeNora, affords “new way[s] of thinking” that in turn are capable of 2013). For example, participants could project new content enhancing or augmenting realities, which is in effect also about (and new versions of themselves) into the public space of the altering realities and with them consciousness. Importantly, boxes. Furthermore, the medium for this transcendence was, the Zoomisphere offered participants a “new” space to relate as participants explained, a new sonic and aesthetic practice and be self-aware. A space for inhabiting at a time when, that made use of what the Zoomesphere afforded. Moreover, during lockdown, the “real” space was characterized by enforced the perception of “space” took on new dimensions and brought confinement within the “box” of the domestic environment and with its creative forms of relating, making music together, the requirement to “stay at home’. and re-perceiving/re-conceptualizing the constituent features of Sometimes the loneliness of the pandemic felt more alone because freedom and/or constraint. you did realise, you’re trapped in a box (Participant 4). There was much discussion around conventional approaches to the ensemble versus the Zoomesphere: the sound that the The confinement in turn offered a contrast structure musicians made in their room and how this translated to their against which to perceive and experience the Zoomesphere as, contribution to the ensemble and sonic environment. alternately, a liberating space and a space of freedom: Making people respect each other’s musical space like really It feels very free and open and, and I don’t feel limited in my own listening, listening and responding, leaving space (Participant 5). expression (Participant 12). The musicians questioned why they played music and Some identified the Zoomesphere as a place that took them reflected on how they felt when playing music in a traditional away from the confinement and restrictive nature of their lives to setting (concerts and rehearsals) compared to the online space. a space where they wanted to be. I have felt, you know, I’ve come out and I felt really, really happy. So in a sense, it’s a little utopia that we enter in from time to time ... I’ve looked forward to it, you know, I feel like it’s like a kind of an in a way that may sound a little bit corny. That’s a world we want internal massage for your brain almost, you know that kind of, yeah. to live [in]. We don’t want to spend 24 h a day making music on able to get to that focus state that sense that state of flow is same Zoom, but we want to be in a world that everybody has support for (Participant 1). each other, everybody is equal, and they respect everybody for what they do (Participant 18). Moving Into the Theatre of Home The Zoomesphere was also a space where the musicians The climate of trust that the Zoomesphere created was reflected on what was happening in their lives while being in characterized by a kind of hospitality and willingness to share a “lockdown” through the pandemic. At a time, globally, when features of the home environment: views of self, including live music in venues closed, many musicians entered a type of new looks, costumes, make-up, masks and objects through the musical depression as a result of an overarching change to the way medium of this newly adopted digital stage. Young children, they lived their lives. The Zoomesphere space gave the musicians babies and pets frequently entered the “performance space”. opportunities emotionally to release themselves and as such it This necessitated a creation of a shared new artistic practice served as a kind of refuge or “music asylum” (DeNora, 2013): a which has been identified to augment audio and visual aesthetical retreat from the cares and stresses posed by the exigencies of daily nuances, mediated via the agential implications of Zoom as a new life under Covid-19. improvisation technique.

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So there’s an emergent form. You know, there’s an emergent form, the other improvisers were doing...it’s about having fun as well but it’s kind of mediated through the technology. I mean, all the (Participant 13). emergent forms are mediated through technology but...in this case [it] was Zoom. The frame set the form...[of] what we were going to If the audio content was unpredictable, players noted the do (Participant 10). usefulness of the visual contact in order to “fill in the gaps” where sound failed as an emergent listening practice. This “filling At first I cannot [feel] comfortable with the front of the iPhone. in” became, we suggest, like a new form of mental exercise and But now I can relax. So Maybe I can make more much more good part of the new creative process, and in ways that pushed the music, I hope (Participant 26). improvisation into more overtly kinesthetic territory:

I really embraced the fact that the software was being so selective It’s almost like we were filling in the gaps, especially when we had but it was random...I felt that that was almost like a true free the visuals to rely on. it almost felt like there was a bit of mental improvisation... (Participant 29). ventriloquism going on... the gestures we were making or the phrases we were trying to communicate still made sense. It was like And of course, you know, we would like to be on the road again. But the equivalent of having a few letters dropping out of a sentence. So we would like to keep doing this kind of stuff (Participant 30). you could still make sense of it. But not only just make sense of it and carry on, it just felt easier after several weeks as well (Participant 9). As Zoom mediated the performance via the various drawbacks of digital improvisation (latency, internet connection, editing out of sounds) players noted these elements of the Zoomesphere Re-imagining, Enhancing, and as an added emergent feature of the improvisation itself, an Augmenting Reality autonomous voice contributing to the improvisation. The most notable results of this shift are practitioners’ acknowledgments of the welcoming atmosphere toward Zoom is somehow almost like the final participant or the kind of experimenting with transdisciplinary performance – “permission ... the moderator of the improvisation Zoom is like an additional to play” (Participant 6). player or conductor or something that’s choosing what we all hear (Participant 5). Before I joined the session I don’t think I have confidence that I can enjoy the session. But I joined the session. The moment the first Instead of highlighting the drawbacks of Zoom, many players sound I made, George Burt smiled. Yes. I made first sound at the spoke about working with these limitations: first time and George Burt smiled. And Maggie said some pleasant We chose to embrace the technology and everything, all its faults things for me. Yeah, it was very impressive for me. Yeah. And I and all its all its positives as well. It was like a journey of trying to thought maybe I can enjoy the session. And I think the GIO is a very explore how that could work for us (Participant 5). good orchestra. So I am very glad to play with them (Participant 23). This included experimentation with furnishing the digital [I] really enjoying some of the sort of affordances that the weirdness of the zoom scenario brought up. I mean, I like my approach to space (via digital means or presenting objects/instruments/pets), working with technology anyway, as you know, is like, I work with costume/bodily presentation (makeup, suits, and gloves etc.) what it throws up to me. Like if my pitch tracker gives me funny and embodied practices (dance, hand presentation, and facial notes, then I use that I’m never trying to like get it to accurately expressions). These various factors became a transdisciplinary detect something. So having all those kinds of weird, things happen practice in the creation of virtual habitats, which existed in zoom and the way that GIO like as a group kind of worked with synonymously and developed collaboratively through the groups those things (Participant 25). willingness to experiment. It was perhaps then not far to go from “filling in” the I think only free improvisation can deal with...the limitations of the gaps to furnishing the boxes with visual and contextualizing medium and..... I’ve seen in on Facebook I’ve seen a lot of people materials and, over time, the individual participants increasingly doing um little ensembles and so on they all seem really quite dull to me in not very exciting. I think that’s what Yeah, but this does made use of visuals, either visual backdrops, or the use of seem like a proper life situation (Participant 27). visuals to produce filmic effects on camera. Visual coding of still screenshots of sessions, always taken at moments when the This resulted in a number of altered considerations on highest number of participants were on the screen and comparing sound practice as described above in relation to volume early screenshots to more recent sessions and noting whether or and physicality, but also included practitioners re-considering not each participant was employing visual materials (film, virtual what/how they chose instruments. In some cases, moving from backdrops, visual, or design features), suggests that the use of the sonic to the visual as a new means for connection and visual materials roughly doubled: from 29% on April 28 to 54% creative communication. on September 15. Over time, the visual component was heightened in what I found myself using my voice a lot more and in ways that I normally wouldn’t have, and maybe it was sort of reaching through we have come to call the “theatre of the home’. Players can the computer screen...try and make a personal connection with be seen altering their room/bodies/instruments via technologic somebody...in that kind of isolated sort of way...I also found inputs (Zoom virtual background, external video editing myself getting more and more interested in, how you could use the software), or physical alterations (fabric on camera, light visual side The process and seeing so many fantastic things that experimentation). A number of new practices emerged as the

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ensemble experimented with the communicative possibilities of This visual play did not only include adaption of space, but this new medium. also the alteration of presented self, perceived self and displayed embodiment. In some instances performers fade into a virtual What’s been fascinating is finding objects, and finding things that I background, warp instrument and body (Participant 7, small can use to create textures and stuff like that .... Yes, you can play group Supplementary Video 2, 14’24”) or “welcome” other with the fabrics and stuff that’s around (Participant 6). players into their space, in the small group Supplementary Video 2 at 9’47” we see the images of the other performers appearing Offices, living rooms, kitchens and gardens were deployed in another players box. On the one hand this act was a poignant to create multiple contexts or “nows” that were drawn into the moment of modifying the isolation which was (and is) a reality shared Zoom “room’. These “nows” can be understood to be of this context of being, during Covid-19, together apart. On in constant development as players exercised agency over the the other hand, it was a creative and new strategy of sociability. aesthetics of the space they wished to offer to the group. This Instances of the breadth of this experimentation are seen in created bespoke visual backdrops to perform with/in. Figure 3, player multiplication across ‘boxes’, Figure 4, player

FIGURE 3 | Player multiplied across “boxes.”

FIGURE 4 | Player hybrid with virtual background.

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FIGURE 5 | Player/instrument morph.

hybrid with virtual background, and Figure 5, player and now where I’m sitting. I’m sitting on the left, but I’m here. But I’m instrument morph. still talking. But you don’t see me now. So am I here? Maybe it’s These are practical examples of experimentation with what recorded. Maybe it’s not, I don’t know. And then you’re going back a body can be when virtually enhanced. With Zoom as a new into your space that you are actually controlling. But you’re more agent, ‘the” body gains ontological flexibility; it gains hybridity, aware of what’s going on now than you were before. Becauseyou’re contingency, possibility, and indeed new visually displayed always reflecting on yourself. So basically, you are always active. You’re never passive about what’s going on. freedoms, underscoring Lewis’ observation that:

‘...our bodies are not ourselves—not anymore. The network is The virtual/real metamorphosis allowed players to try out new the site of the production of knowledge, and the body animates visual/virtual selves in ways that included contemplating new that network. That makes living with creative machines an forms of self-presentation/being, one that when they eventually epistemological practice/project (Lewis, 2007). returned to physical venues might be sustainable there. This contemplation was associated with a sense of empowerment. The In the practices and in the interview data we see participants “theatre of home” afforded, in other words, a “safe space” in which engaging in what Kroker(2012) calls, “body drift,” in other to try out new selves – and to grow: words, the edges around what defines and separates bodies can be re-imagined. This re-imagining in turn permits and I’ve never used makeup in improvisers performances before...I fosters new perceptions, including self-perceptions and, at times thought this, this actually feels kind of safe. To try this. Cause it’s proprioception as bodies are re-configured sensorially through just, it’s just one thing in many...I didn’t overtly sort of share an the virtual parameters and in ways that may produce the artist statement about it or anything, but I felt like it was quite exhilarating for me to do that well, because I was, deconstructing illusion of physical proximity and in ways that foreground virtual a lot of, sort of worries that I have about. My visual as a woman in sensations and perceptions over “real” ones – and in ways that the music industry or in probably more in sound and kind of digital call into question the very dichotomy of “virtual’/’real” (DeNora, technology kind of profession that I’m in. You know, make up is 2014, p. 119–120) and as the metamorphoses of identity, capacity, something that, and color and clothes. It’s something that I love, but capability, ability, or skill shuttle between “virtual” and “real.” it’s something, I feel like I’m not really taken seriously if I wear too The Zoomesphere’s hybrid realm helps to expose such a lack much of it or, or yeah well I have actually had comments about, you of definable dichotomy, rather the “virtual” and the “real” are know, if I do my hair differently and things like that. So yeah. It was bound together, allowing reflective engagement with moment just, it was, you know, for me it felt quite kind of political and quite to moment drifts between physical and digital perceptions. As powerful, what I was doing it. I don’t know if that it really mattered Participant 14 put it: to anyone else, but it was, yeah, it was quite helpful for me to sort of enact that and try that out. Over Zoom. Whereas if I did something but there’s still this embodiment happening. I mean, there’s no like that in the CCA and just stepped into the middle of room and embodiment, but it’s just like exactly what I mean one of the articles just started doing my makeup. I just, I don’t think I would have ever that I’m talking about in my installation, Nancy, you know, Jean- done that in the CCA. I think that just would have been too much Luc Nancy, you know him? So he’s talking about this crying voice or too frightening to do in a physical room. But who knows now in the desert, that you hear a voice but where is the embodiment of afterward (Participant 9). the voice? If there is no embodiment, does the voice exists, isn’t it? Yeah, but I see this locations that you’re in. I see the environment The Zoomesphere was associated with other forms of growth that you’re in. I see like partial your hand there, I see a shadow. as well, including a kind of cognitive capacity or mode of I see. I can imagine and completed in my head that I’m standing attention, as Participant 19 explains:

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And then in this virtual experience we become so real and maybe small groups (Supplementary Video 2) we see two such types it was probably the efforts to go through this sympathy through this of settings. At 5’21” there is a theatrical and augmented being together and try to focus on – not only on our presence, but context, utilizing virtual backgrounds (shared across on what we were doing together. Make a kind of expanded, I mean, players), multiplying bodies on screen, and text based the usual limits the frontiers of our, of our actions when we when communication. This contrasts with the atmosphere of the we play together. I felt this in a very strong way....Actually what group at 19’08” who use more traditional sonic signals in I think was that sometimes, when we got into that dimension, it Figure 6 was like, like we are in a different brainwave, like we had this kind order to communicate. presented the comparison of of, we have this internet thing here and we have something that’s these two distinct atmospheres. connecting us even, I’m not playing the you know the mind power The notion of moving into the Zoom space does not imply or...Actual I believe that improvisation can show us that we have that all members take up extra musical activities, but rather a kind of capacity in our, in our cognitive and in our brain in our that the co-creation of different types of welcoming atmospheres mind that actually we don’t use in a high level, we use in a very basic (for small and large groups), creates a language which invites level as we’re dealing with this objective world. With the concrete inclusion no matter what practice has been adopted. In the world. And here we have the excuse to make it more powerful, I short excerpt (Supplementary Video 3), this language can be think (Participant 19). viewed as emergent as it infects, traveling around the group: hands and feet multiply across boxes synonymously with the As practices toward developing individual space continued, musical gesture. Two such emergent bodily themes are presented this resulted in various kinds of mini atmospheres. In the in Figures 7,8 .

FIGURE 6 | Comparison atmospheres.

FIGURE 7 | Imitation and emergent bodily themes 1. The Gif version, highlighting musicians’ movement, can be found in the Supplementary Material.

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FIGURE 8 | Imitation and emergent bodily themes 2. The Gif version, highlighting musicians’ movement, can be found in the Supplementary Material.

FIGURE 9 | Showing objects/home/instruments 1. The Gif version, highlighting musicians’ movement, can be found in the Supplementary Material.

Figures 9, 10 reflect the environment of the Zoomesphere player noted the skill was to “build relationships with strangers” where players show objects, instruments, bodies, alongside music (Participant 14) as an interdisciplinary narrative of community practice. ... Moving into the Zoomesphere meant decorating individual When you’re given lemons you make lemonade, really we were doing it all together, and you develop a kind of identity of working Zoom space, as a new practice toward welcoming each other in a team, that goes beyond when you stop working (Participant 20). into these new intimate performance scenarios. This is a unique opportunity to watch improvisation do what it does so well: In summary, the notion of the Zoomesphere emerged from the adapt. And more importantly adapt diversely and socially. As one interviews as important in helping to inculcate a unique creative

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FIGURE 10 | Showing object/home/instruments 2. The Gif version, highlighting musicians’ movement, can be found in the Supplementary Material.

FIGURE 11 | Time-lapse of rehearsals, all photos taken at moments when most participants were in attendance. The Gif version, highlighting musicians’ movement, can be found in the Supplementary Material.

environment, what we have termed “The Theatre of Home’. This as safe, supportive and beneficial in helping them cope with the creative space, with its virtual, physical and mental components, psychological demands of living under lockdown restrictions. functions as a shared and democratic environment, where Figure 11 presents a time-lapse of rehearsals developed from participants can explore new ideas and collaborate, often leading photographs taken at movements in each session when the most to new creative insights. Participants describe this environment participants were in attendance.

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DISCUSSION introducing new ideas, responding, augmenting, and contrasting) and these types of decisions are clearly implicated in the reported The results highlight the multiple and complex ways in results. These key categories of decision made by members which online musical activities, and improvisational practices of a group including; whether or not to change; whether specifically, can be used to maintain and enhance social to initiate or respond; and what kind of response to give connections during periods of enforced physical distancing. have been identified as fundamental features of improvisational These practices of “creative isolation” resonate with current activity (MacDonald and Wilson, 2020). These choices allow debates around the potential for creative engagement in non- improvisation at any level to become novel and valuable in clinical contexts to enhance wellbeing (MacDonald, 2021b). particular ways where new discoveries are generated through The interviews also show how participants engage in what the interplay of choices. Conceptualizing improvisation in this has been termed “health musicking” (Ruud, 2012, 2020) way can enhance our understanding of improvised interaction to create interdisciplinary narratives of community practice. between performers from different disciplines or when using new “Health musicking” helps explain how musical engagement technology. It is of note that other performance practices also in everyday non-clinical contexts can provide a variety of moved to digital spaces. Similar improvising ensembles rehearsed benefits while highlighting there is no simple cause and using conference software’s11, virtual venues and residencies effect relationship between music and health. Rather we where set up12, live stream series occurred on various social can view music as a situated practice intertwined within a media platforms13, and Zoom was also used for interactive complex network of behaviors, emotions, and beliefs. It is live performance14. By contrast, GIO meetings between April this very complexity that lies at the heart of why music has and November did not involve live streamed performance potential to enhance wellbeing, since it is inextricably linked and this non-audience environment contributed to participants’ to notions of identity and community as well as creativity. understandings of GIO as a “safe space’. However, between The results therefore demonstrate a sophisticated and complex November 26, 2020 and November 28, 2020 GIO presented, via network of relationships where musical interactions facilitate live stream, its 13th annual international festival of improvisation psychological identity work leading to enhanced markers of titled Flattening The Curve which included all the participants wellbeing such as development in mood, positive emotions in this study plus an extended group of United Kingdom and and reduced feelings of isolation. Participants frequently make international artists15. explicit reference to multiple features as being important Framing improvisation as a moment to moment-decision aspects of these positive effects. For example, the sophisticated based process helps explain how numerous unpredictable way in which technological features merge with musical and features can be integrated and utilized within the evolving social are clearly implicated by participants in explaining and complex environment that is the focus of this article. why music has beneficial effects. One salient feature is that Importantly, these decisions are not purely musical, but present the specifics of the Zoomesphere, as detailed above, facilitate in all types of improvising across artistic and social contexts new ways of being creative while maintaining and enhancing (dance, theatre, turn taking in conversations, sporting activity, vital social bonds during periods of unprecedented global critical firefighting, and surgery etc.). They can also operate physical isolation. consciously and unconsciously. Thus, these types of decisions, Improvisational practices, with an emphasis on real time, which possibly lie at the heart of improvising, are accessible to spontaneous, collaborative interactions, are ideally suited to everyone and allow for chance events and unforeseen outcomes, this nuanced interweaving of musical, psychological, social and since the manner in which improvisatory decisions merge technical features to facilitate health, as well as creative, benefits. and develop can never be fully predicted. These external and Clift et al.(2010) suggest six emergent processes within music performative elements are, as George Lewis notes, a practice making (specifically singing but also prevalent in other forms of of “real-time analysis, generation, manipulation, exchange, music making) that may contribute to these effects, which are and transformation of meaning, mediated by (among other also evident in the results presented above: attendant learning, factors) the body, history, temporality, space, memory, intention, positive emotions, focused concentration, controlled breathing, material culture, and diverse methodologies’ (Lewis, 2007). social bonding, education, and learning and active participation Moreover, these factors do seem to flourish in this digital and we can clearly witness 5 of these generative processes in realm particularly, which refers back to the group notion of the results above. actively engaging with – re-imaging realities toward creating a Another key feature is the way in which participants shared identity. report being supported in their endeavors. This is particularly evident for some of the players who were less experienced. 11Toronto Improvising Orchestra (CA), Oxford Improvising Orchestra This type of psychological support, termed scaffolding (Creech (United Kingdom), The Gathering (United Kingdom) 12 et al., 2014), has been shown to be particularly important Chez Roger (CZ), now closed due to “re-opening,” Serge and Neverthere Festival (United Kingdom) when looking to enhance confidence and task orientated self- 13JeffersonParkEXP, Open Improvisation Series: Online Edition, AMPLIFY 2020: efficacy. The non-hierarchical, safe space as identified in the quarantine interviews allows for spontaneous decisions about the nature 14Mamoru Iriguchi Zoom Dark Mode of individual creative inputs (starting, stopping, reflecting, 15https://www.glasgowimprovisersorchestra.com/

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I think improvisation is the source of creativity for me. help maintain community through the sharing of ideas, mutual Improvisation is the most powerful, powerfully creative process creative engagement and provide a reason to be in contact there is because you know the mindfulness people meditators talk with others, so vital during times of enforced isolation. This about being present, fully present, being in the moment, being article takes one specific example and highlights numerous able to cope with whatever arises. That’s what we’re doing. We’re ways in which improvisation can facilitate health improvements actually fully immersed in each moment we’re responding to our and act as a mechanism for changes of consciousness while own impulses, to what, to our environment, to other players, to other musicians. And it’s all happening as time unfolds. We’re integrating new ways of collaborating: a virtual tribe. Innovative literally in tune with the universe as it’s developing and unfolding. group based creative practices can be undertaken in the We’re right there at the cutting edge of life (Participant 6). domestic environment, creating what we have termed “The Theatre of Home” and demonstrating how online synchronous The hybridity (in all senses) of the “unfolding” experience improvisational activities can enhance community, create novel in turn affords a kind of practical learning, its non-hierarchical improvisatory techniques and new experiences in creativity when features affording inclusion regardless of age, background, or physical distancing is mandatory. expertise. This spirit, very much linked to existing histories of the Feminist Improvising Group (FIG) highlights what Maggie Nicols calls, ’social virtuosity’. Indeed, it has been argued that DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT conventional notions of musical virtuosity are too narrow, over emphasizing technical mastery, and new virtuosities which The datasets presented in this article are not readily available could include virtuosic listening, collaborating and decision because full dataset only available to authors. Requests to making, may be universally accessible and fundamental to access the datasets should be directed to corresponding author improvising (MacDonald and Wilson, 2020). Thus, rather than ([email protected]). impeding socially motivated musical techniques, the digital nature of the meeting space actually bolstered and inspired new possibilities for co-developing a technological community and, ETHICS STATEMENT as such, has enhanced the improvisatory skills, repertoire and cultural “toolkit” of the participants. Willingness, acceptance, The studies involving human participants were reviewed and spontaneous receptibility have assisted in the evolution and approved by Edinburgh College of Art, The University of this environment, ultimately encouraging experimentation, of Edinburgh, Ethics Committee. The patients/participants self and group discovery and an overarching feeling of safety provided their written informed consent to participate in for a newly established artistic community in a time of great this study. Written informed consent was obtained from the unrest. It remains to be seen the extent to which some of individual(s) for the publication of any potentially identifiable these skills are transferred to settings outside of GIO, where images or data included in this article. “social improvisation” can be helpful – as for example in online interactions linked to work, conflict resolution, social services, and daily life. AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS CONCLUSION All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication. Music can be characterized as accessible, creative, universal, collaborative, communicative, and emotional. One of its primary functions is to enable communication, and improvisation as SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL a constituent process, helps establish music as a distinct and complex channel of communication. It is deployed in The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online countless situations to facilitate contact between people, to at: http://maria.briandonohue.org/Our-virtual-tribe.html

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(2021a). “The social functions of music: Communication, potential conflict of interest. wellbeing, art, ritual, identity and social networks (C-WARIS),” in Handbook of music psychology in education and the community, eds D. Hodges, A. Creech, Copyright © 2021 MacDonald, Burke, De Nora, Sappho Donohue and Birrell. This and S. Hallan (New York: Oxford University Press). is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons MacDonald, R. A. R. (2021b). “Improvisation,” in Oxford Handbook of Music Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums Performance, eds G. E. McPherson and P. E. Miksza (New York: Oxford is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited University Press). and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted MacDonald, R. A. R., Kreutz, G., and Mitchell, L. A. (2012). Music, Health and academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not Wellbeing. Oxford: Oxford University Press. comply with these terms.

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